Christie’s Uses Auction Ties to Find London Luxury Homes

Overseas investors are buying luxury homes in the U.K. capital to preserve wealth in one of the world’s most resilient property markets amid political and economic volatility at home. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Christie’s International, the 246-year-old fine art auction house, plans to use its contacts with
some of the world’s wealthiest people to help millionaires
around the globe find a home in London.

Christie’s Private Property will help locate homes in areas
such as Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Mayfair, Holland
Park, Notting Hill and Hampstead, said Giles Hannah, director
and senior vice president of the real estate business.

“Being linked to Christie’s allows us to have access to
ultra-high-net-worth clients and their properties,” Hannah said
in an interview. “We know about some of London’s best stock
before it hits the rest of the market.”

Overseas investors are buying luxury homes in the U.K.
capital to preserve wealth in one of the world’s most resilient
property markets. Investors from China, where the government is
taking steps to cool the property market, and Southeast Asia
bought one in every two new homes sold in central London last
year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Christie’s International Real Estate already sells homes
when its clients offer them and is marketing the Woolworth
Mansion at Fifth Avenue and East 79th street in New York for $90
million.

Christie’s Private Property brokers will travel to meet
clients and their families to understand the type of real estate
they want, said Hannah, who’s completed more than 300 million
pounds ($471 million) of property transactions. They will focus
on homes valued at 3 million pounds or more.

More Asian Billionaires

“We will get to know them incredibly well, find out what
they like and what they dislike,” he said by telephone. “The
idea from that is to go off and buy them the best. Anything is
possible, nothing too much to ask.”

The number of billionaires in Asia rose to 351 last year
from 245 in 2010, according to Credit Suisse Group AG’s Global
Wealth report. Europe had 251 billionaires while North America
accounted for 332 last year, the Zurich-based bank said.

The market for homes worth at least 8 million pounds is
dominated by Savills Plc, Knight Frank LLP, Chesterton Humberts
and Property Vision, according to Faisal Butt, managing partner
of Hamilton Bradshaw Real Estate, which invests in forming
property ventures with entrepreneurs.

“Breaking into this tier of the market is extremely
difficult,” Butt said by e-mail. “Only three brokerages
dominate this end of the market and have access to the serious
ultra-high-net-worth individuals. Buyers are looking for trusted
advisers, and will pay for a depth of knowledge.”

London Dominates

London accounted for almost three quarters of the U.K.
homes sold for 2 million pounds or more last year, according to
Lonres.com Ltd. About 41 percent were in the City of Westminster
and the Kensington and Chelsea neighborhoods, the London-based
residential real estate data provider said.

Buyers seeking to purchase luxury real-estate in London
prefer to use brokers with a team of buying agents rather than
employing individual negotiators, according to Camilla Dell,
managing partner of Black Brick Property Solutions LLP.

“Clients would rather deal with a professional
organization that has an office, that has a team,” she said by
telephone. “The market is flooded with a combination of one-man-band, two-man-band buying agents that probably work from
home and do a few deals a year.”

Christie’s International Real Estate is marketing homes at
the Bulgari Hotel and Residences in London, where a penthouse
apartment was purchased for about 100 million pounds, a person
with knowledge of the transaction said Dec. 20. Christie’s
declined to comment.